My mother's day present from my broody Welsummer was a 100% hatch of nine littles. She is a first time momma and doing very well with them so far.
Wonderful!! I have my first broody hen sitting on 4 eggs - one of my year-old BCMarans. I hope she's a good momma - she's pretty fierce in protecting the eggs.
I just hatched out some crosses of my only rooster, a BCM and my Ameraucana and Welsummer hens, plus some bought pure BCM eggs (for different genetics). The pure Marans babies are a little wild and certainly don't enjoy being handled and I too got mostly males. They are only 2.5 weeks now, but I may have 3-4 males out of the 5 that hatched! This may be the end of my Marans breeding program. Of the crosses, I have 4, one looks like a blue wheaten pullet, though the dad is BCM, one is a minky brown with muffs and maybe a pea/straight combo comb.And just in case anyone is looking for a young cockerel to add to a backyard flock, I have a slew of 8 week olds. I think I am running about 75% males this year. Will process any not sold in a month or two. All good stock, no hatchery.
--Olive Eggers (Welsummer x Blue Wheaten Ameraucana)
--Welsummers
--Black-laced Red Wyandottes
--Brown Leghorn
Did you have any Ameraucana males and can you tell me the temperaments of them if you did, and the Wellies? I've been in contact with the breeder (that we both got birds from) and I'm trying to decide if I want to replace the Ams with the yellow legs with more Ams or Wellies, or wait for him to hatch something else. I do enjoy my Ams, so I may try those again, (love the blue eggs), but my husband loves the brown speckled Wellie eggs. Still experimenting with breeds that I want to try working with or continue with. Hatching out Dominiques next week since I've been wanting to try those for a while now.
